Split-Second Mistakes
by APFiction14
Summary: In the city of Baa-sing-sae, the Avatar is hiding under the disguise of a civilian. Being hunted down by his friends, who seem to want nothing more then his blood, he must escape before they find him and punish him for what he did.
1. Hide and Seek

**Hello, everyone and welcome to my new story, Split-second mistakes! The mood for this story will end up ranging. Angst will be a large part, though I am unsure to what else it could be.**

**As for length, the story will most likely be between ten or twenty chapters. Lots of exposition and plot thickening, after all.**

**Now, you may be thinking: what pairings are you going to see? The answer:**

**Non.**

**That's right, I am not including any definate pairings as I am not sure who I support. So no, no Katang or Zutara in this story!**

**Finally, if you see any errors in the chapters, (Spelling, grammar, etc) please tell me. I'm writing this on wordpad which doesn't exactly have a spell check.**

**Anyway, on with the story!**

Chapter 1

Hide and Seek

Aang had spent the last five minutes running down alley ways, dodging past people and jumping over shop stalls in an effort to get back to his house, or at least put as much distance between him and the city square.

He looked a lot differently then he did a few months prior; not only did he lack the signature Air-Bender staff he was given before the failed attack on the Fire-Nation almost two years ago, but he also was wearing Earth Kingdom robes and had long black hair that obscured any of the blue ink on his head that wasn't covered when he used the flesh-coloured cream.

How he got into this situation happened almost five months ago. The after-effects that occured caused him to flee from the people he once had the right to call friends. He never slept in the same location for at least four of those months, but he eventually settled inside of the city of Baa-sing-sae, a city he knew very well.

His life since had been exhausting, but honest. No one knew he was the avatar, that he was hiding under a disguise. He managed to get work in a mining company, earning enough money to buy a small room in the residential side of the city.

But it was not to last. It felt like any day. He would go to work, get enough money to get some decent food, then go home. He was just coming around the corner when he saw a face he had hoped to never see again.

Sokka.

It was lucky that his old friend had not seen him. The few seconds he had were put to good use. Aang was once again on the run.

He knew at that moment his former friends were here to kill him. The worst thing about it was, if anything, Aang felt they had every right to end him. For what he did. For the day he wished never had existed. For the day every single thing went wrong.

For the day he killed Katara.

**What kind of bomb was that, I wonder?**

**Sorry if the chapter seemed short. Is only the introduction, after all! :)**

**Tell me what you think in the reviews!**


	2. The hunt for Azula

**Another chapter so soon? Well, I've got a lot of time on my hands. XD**

**Sprintjump****: Thanks for the review! This is the only dark story I have written, so I hope it goes well.**

Chapter 2

The hunt for Azula

It had all started after Aang, Katara, Zuko, Sokka and Azula had found the Firebenders mother. Zuko had spent a bit of time making his mother and her family comfortable in their new home. However, no one could deny what they had to do next: Find Azula.

Zuko had hoped (No, wished) that Azula would settle down and not cause any trouble. It hadn't even been a month before reports that the group, the Rough Rhinos, had formed an alliance with the former princess and were attacking Earth Kingdom villages.

Because of this, Zuko had once again teamed up with the Gaang to find Azula and put her away once more. Finding her was hard enough. She didn't have a distinct pattern on which villages she attacked and raided, or stayed in the same area for too long.

They finally nailed a location for the group, though. A guard had seen them pass by during the night on the road near Omashu. Luckily it had just been less then an hour before.

It took them a while to reach the group. But after they did, the next part of the difficult mission came to play: Arresting Azula.

It had been a brutal fight. Bombs, swords, whips, fire and water surrounded the battlefield. They all managed to stay in the fight right until the end.

That didn't mean they won.

Sure, they took on the Rhinos and subdued them after a while. But the problem was of cause the reason they were there; Azula had managed to defeat Zuko in a fight due to Zukos hesitation and he was kicked off of a cliff because of it.

Aang had gotten so angry, he had forgotten every small thing and warning Zuko had given him about Fire-Bending. If he had never shot that lightning strike, this never would have happened.

Katara, Toph and Sokka were fighting the remaining members of the Rough Rhinos. Katara had been a few metres to much near Azula. Azula knew this. The worst thing was, Azula didn't even bother redirecting the lightning strike. She simply side stepped with that knowing smile on her face.

Aang didn't even have time to yell. The lightning hit Katara somewhere on the upper body. Sokka had flew into a fit of rage when he realised what had happened. Aang still had the scar where the boomerang had hit him after he hadn't obeyed Sokka and left.

Because of the confusion, Azula had escaped. She had dissapeared after the incident and neither Aang nor his friends were in the mind state to look for her.

As Aang fled from Sokka's wrath, he saw Appa fly away, sure that his now former friends and possibly Katara's corpse was riding him.

The worst thing about how it happened was that just seconds before it hit her, she turned to look.

The last expression he saw on her face was shock.

**How about it? Good so far? How was Sokka's reaction to it? Leave your opinions in the reviews!**


	3. Memories

**Wow, 78 views? Thats a lot! :D**

**Remember: Post reviews about ANYTHING you see wrong in the story! I am open to criticism!**

**Sprintjump: Who knows? Maybe Sokka DID chase him. It might be only Sokka who is after Aang. Or not. No spoilers allowed! :)**

**For the first time ever, I am adding a disclaimer because why not?**

**Disclaimer: I do not, in any shape or form, in any digit or letter, own anything about Avatar: The Last Airbender except this story and any OC's I may make along the way.**

Chapter 3

Memories

Aang ran for what seemed like forever. By the time he had come to his senses, his legs felt like they had been scraped by rocks several times over.

Several thoughts and feelings blurred his thoughts: Anger, Sadness, Guilt and self-hatred were just the surface of the crack in his mind.

He fell to his knees and dropped his staff. It bounced on the ground twice before coming to a steady halt against a boulder across from Aang. The utterly distraught Avatar started feeling light-headed. After a few seconds, the ground rose up to meet him.

_Aang felt the leaf burning as he waved his hand around it. Eventually, it burst into flames, much to the young Avatars joy._

_"I did it!" He exclaimed happily, "I made fire!"_

_Katara looked at him from her water-bending training._

_"Aang, that's great, but you should take it slow-"_

_Aang interrupted her by increasing the intensity of the fire, causing it to shoot up._

_"Be careful!" Katara yelled as the Avatar almost lost his balance. He regained it and smiled at his handiwork._

_"Now thats Fire-Bending!" He took it further by shooting the fire into the sky._

_"Aang!" Katara once again warned him, "You'll hurt yourself!"_

_Aang started juggling the small flame around him, oblivious to Katara's worries._

_"I wonder how juggler did it..." Aang proceeded to twirl in a circle and grab the flame with both hands and extend it in a fiery blaze. Aang was amazed at the display, but was snapped back into reality when Katara screamed as the blaze brushed over her hands..._

Aang woke up with a start. The memories of the dream burnt even hotter then the fire he bended that day.

The memories of the burns on Kataras hands, how he yelled how he was sorry, how Sokka tackled him to the ground, yelling how he burnt his sister. The events that caused Aang to never want to fire-bend again.

Then he remembered the events of the previous day. The dream seemed like a paper cut compared to how he felt when he realised he had killed his best friend.

Aang curled up into a ball and finally started to cry.

**Yeah, as you can guess there are going to be a lot of flashbacks in this story. If you didn't guess it, that scene was of the season one episode, The Deserter. Rewatched the scene several times to get a good idea of what I was going to write. :)**

**Anyway, I will see you next time!**


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